Assistant Professor of English Marcos Del Hierro was a Faculty Fellow in the Center for the Humanities in 2017-2018. In his Faculty Fellow Lecture, he will present on how digital
rhetoric and writing scholarship center the use of contemporary computer
technologies, ignoring how digital
practices have existed for millennia in many cultures. Broadening our
understanding of digital practices offers the possibility of critique and
innovation that includes how culture informs uses of technologies. This
presentation combines Native American rhetorical theory, Chicanx feminist
theory, and hiphop studies to examine the rhetorics of “sazón” and “flava,”
which are culturally-specific terms describing one’s personal seasoning. By
linking the Mexican-Indigenous practice of making corn tortillas with the
affinity deejays have for cooking metaphors when describing their work, Professor Del Hierro theorizes “flava” as the hiphop equivalent of sazón and a hiphop rhetorical
concept. Sazón and flava reveal ways digital practices are culturally-encoded,
provides examples of alternative understandings of digital rhetorics, and, therefore, offers possibilities for innovations that include and value
diversity.
The Center for the Humanities
annually hosts a series of informal lectures featuring the recipients of the
previous year’s faculty fellowships. The talks focus on the fellows’ research.
They provide an opportunity for faculty members to learn more about each
other’s work and allow the Center to show off some of the intellectual riches
it has helped foster. The goal of the series is to create a collegial
environment that encourages discussion.